In the prior art, the direct illustration of printing formes from a digital data store from the pre-print stage, such as the prepress area, takes place by the utilization of one of three systems as discussed in the publication Teschner, “Offsetdruck-technik” [Offset Printing Techniques], 1995, publ. by Fachschriftenverlag. These three systems are as follows:
Transferring all digital image data for all ink colors to individual printing plates outside of the printing press=computer-to-plate.
Transferring all digital image data for all ink colors to several printing plates in the printing press=computer-to-press.
Transferring all digital image data for all ink colors to re-writable printing forme cylinders, such as image carrier drums in the printing press=computer-to-print
While disposable printing plates; i.e. printing plates that cannot be used again, are employed with the first two systems set forth above, no printing plates are used with the third system. Instead, the printing forme cylinder itself is provided with images.
It is a limitation of these prior art systems that none of the three above-described systems offers an efficient solution, in particular in connection with multicolor printing in a large format.